


Cracked Pavement

by miiniwa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 19:45:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9287129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miiniwa/pseuds/miiniwa
Summary: —and although the images in his mind are just as hazy as watercolors, he can still remember the slight tinge of pink that would spread along Kuroo's cheeks and ears, and the strangely thoughtful look in his eyes as he would look away."You're heavy," Kenma snaps, firmly placing a pillow in between them, and Kuroo sighs, mostly amused."Like I said, I missed you too," Kuroo tells him, looking at him from over the pillow, as Kenma stubbornly turns to face the other way.





	

"Bye, Kenma!!"

 

 

Kenma nods, partly tired, mostly polite, in the direction of Inuoka and Lev, who are both enthusiastically waving at him at the point where the directions of their houses split.

 

 

Starting at the beginning of his third year, those two had gradually become the ones whom he found himself walking home with most often, since they were all still part of the volleyball club, after all.

 

 

They were loud, somewhat obnoxious, and quick to argue about the most pointless topics between one another, but they were also close to him, kept him company, and were (although he would probably never ever admit this out loud) people he considered as friends.

 

 

Still, even within their mostly comforting company, fleeting thoughts of longing still drifted past Kenma every now and then.

 

 

During their walks home, he could still picture the figure of bright red peeking out from his peripheral vision, and the solid shadow of spiky, tousled hair pressed against the wall next to them.

 

 

There had been times where he had expected Kuroo to be there, times where he had opened his mouth with his name nearly leaving his lips, before he remembers that Kuroo is miles away, probably just minding his own business, because he's just that kind of person.

 

 

"Kenma!"

 

 

Lev's voice is loud against his thoughts, and Kenma turns towards it, brows mostly furrowed, before he realizes that Lev had probably been calling his name out for a while now.

 

 

"We're going this way now, Kenma," Inuoka tells him, offering a much quieter tone than Lev.

 

 

"Ah, okay," Kenma replies, tucking his PSP into his pocket.

 

 

"See you tomorrow," Kenma adds, giving them the smallest of waves before he turns to walk the rest of his way home.

 

 

He pays a bit more attention to where he's going when he's alone now, something he had been forced to do after the few times he had gotten lost on the way home and needed to call his mom or one of his cousins to find him and bring him back home.

 

 

Kenma pauses at a certain corner, where tiny flowers are growing at the base of the pedestrian sign and along the opening cracks of the pavement.

 

 

It's a point in which taking either path would lead him back to his house, although one of them is apparently a shortcut, which Kuroo would make them take almost every single day.

 

 

Kenma shrugs, deciding to take the longer path this time, using the street signs as his guide.

 

 

Unexpectedly, he returns home a lot faster than he had anticipated, and he frowns, wondering if it's because he had actually paid attention this time, or if it had just been some strange psychological factor messing with his head.

 

 

However, those thoughts are quickly dismissed when he hears the sound of his PSP from his pocket, signaling that an in-game enemy had appeared, and he quickly enters his house, pushing thoughts of Kuroo towards the back of his mind.

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

Kenma flops backwards onto his bed, freshly showered and hair extremely damp against his pillows, something that would never be tolerated if Kuroo were around.

 

 

He sighs, shifting onto his side so he can reach other and pull his phone out from its charger.

 

 

He shifts once more, onto his stomach this time, as he presses the buttons of his phone, until he reaches Kuroo's profile.

 

 

Kenma's fingers hover carefully over the call button, a routine that would happen mostly every other day, and on all those days, Kenma had never once actually pressed the button.

 

 

He would always assume that Kuroo was probably too busy doing his homework or studying, because he's a university student after all, and the image of Kuroo scribbling at his desk with a frustrated expression on his face is the thing that would pull him back the most.

 

 

_This is dumb_ , Kenma thinks to himself, dunking the front of his face into his pillow.

 

 

When he looks up, he notices that his phone is now _calling_ Kuroo, and he freezes, realizing that he had pressed the call button on accident.

 

 

He hastily ends the call before it can go through and tucks his phone under his pillow afterwards, taking in a deep breath to calm his nerves.

 

 

While one part of him is currently nervous and jittery, the other part is curious, wondering what would be happening right now if he had actually let the call go through.

 

 

Kenma tries not to think on it too much, but lately, Kuroo hasn't been contacting him much at all. He does his best to attribute that to things such as school or part time jobs, but a tiny part of him also wishes that Kuroo would at least send him a text every so often, because just that much would put him a bit more at ease.

 

 

He frowns, stubbornly deciding not to check his phone for the remainder of the night, and with that, he reaches over for his PSP instead, the only thing that will keep his mind off Kuroo.

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

"Here you go, Kenma."

 

 

Kenma looks up from his PSP, blinking in surprise by the warm, steaming meat bun suddenly presented in front of him, with Inuoka's beaming face as the backdrop.

 

 

"...Thanks," he mutters, pausing his game and pushing his PSP into his pocket as he carefully takes the meat bun from him, undeniably grateful.

 

 

To his side, Lev is already more than half way through with his, and Kenma cringes a little at the mess on his face.

 

 

"Ah, in this kind of situation, Yaku-san would be throwing tissues in Lev's face," Inuoka remarks, laughing, and Lev looks over at him, brow obliviously raised.

 

 

"No, if it were Lev, I think he would just leave him like that," Kenma points out, biting into the meat bun and quietly savoring the sweet taste of the sauce.

 

 

"Oh, yeah, you're right!" Inuoka says, the two of them watching as Lev makes a dramatic finish with his meat bun.

 

 

At the corner, Kenma parts ways with the pair, giving them one of his partial nods — a trademark — before he continues along his way, only halfway through with the meat bun he had been given.

 

 

Now that he thinks about it, it's at this point during the way home where he would usually be halfway done with it. Kuroo would always comment on how slow of a eater he was, and Kenma would reply with a quiet shrug.

 

 

Kenma takes the usual route home this time, strangely more at ease than usual, and he suspects that Inuoka and Lev had been secretly comforting him in their own special ways.

 

 

When he reaches home, Kenma finds that the metal clasp on his house's gate is only halfway in, and he raises a brow, because his parents almost always make sure to close it all the way.

 

 

He decides to excuse it as a simple mistake, before he realizes why things had been that way, when he sees a pair of still-familiar shoes at the entrance, placed neatly and politely on the floor.

 

 

Kenma kicks off his sneakers, throat feeling heavy and dry as he jogs up the stairs, uncaring of the way some strands of hair fall onto his face.

 

 

"Yo," Kuroo says, when Kenma opens up the door to his room and spots him leaning back in the wooden chair in front of his desk.

 

 

He looks mostly the same, albeit slightly taller and radiating a stronger sense of manliness, somehow, which is what Kenma had been expecting.

 

 

He quickly notices the small stack of paper and books set on his desk, which Kuroo had probably brought along with him to keep from falling behind on studying. Just as he had suspected, school had been keeping him busy.

 

 

"Why"—

 

 

Kenma pauses, realizing that he's actually at a loss for words, and he's not quite sure what to say next.

 

 

In front of him, Kuroo grins a little.

 

 

"You know, if you really wanted to see me that badly, you could've just called and, you know, actually let the call go through all the way," he tells him, and Kenma feels a slight heat spread across his face, suddenly both annoyed and embarrassed.

 

 

"...That was just an accident," Kenma mutters, dropping his bags onto the floor before walking across the room and sitting down on his bed, a mostly stubborn expression on his face set the whole time.

 

 

"Yup, I missed you too," Kuroo remarks, crossing his arms, and wearing the slightly arrogant trademark smirk that Kenma had probably missed a lot more than he would like to admit.

 

 

Kenma heaves out a long breath before he leans back, lying down on his bed as he takes his phone out of his pocket.

 

 

"...How's university?" Kenma questions, fingers tapping along the screen of his phone, but doing nothing in particular.

 

 

"Well..." Kuroo trails off, gesturing over to the pile of papers he had brought along with him.

 

 

"It's nothing I can't handle," he finally shrugs, arranging the stack a bit more neatly before he moves it to the side.

 

 

"Hmm," Kenma replies, because it's a typical Kuroo-like response, and when he looks up past his phone, Kuroo is next to him, nudging him a little.

 

 

"Scoot over," Kuroo says, and Kenma sighs, giving him a small, thoughtful look before he lazily wiggles to the side, allowing Kuroo room to lie down next to him.

 

 

"To be honest though, I feel like it's been a while since I've been able to just relax like this," Kuroo tells him, eyes closing as he takes in a deep breath.

 

 

Kenma realizes that he had been right when he had noticed that Kuroo had grown a bit. He's not sure if it has to do with muscle mass, or just his stature in general, but it makes Kenma's heart skip the tiniest beat, and he nearly flinches at the feeling.

 

 

"You know, you lied about something before," Kenma starts, in small attempts to calm himself down.

 

 

Kuroo raises a brow, turning onto his side to look at him.

 

 

"And that is?" He asks, head slightly tilting to the side.

 

 

"About the 'shortcut' you would always make us take on the way home," Kenma tells him, and Kuroo twitches, a fake smile suddenly playing across his face.

 

 

"It's actually the _longer_ way, isn't it?" Kenma continues, and judging by Kuroo's expression, he can only assume that he's correct.

 

 

"I got caught, huh," Kuroo sighs, looking fondly at him now, as if he knew this moment would arrive one day or the other.

 

 

"You're kind of lame sometimes, Kuro," Kenma tells him, putting his phone down.

 

 

"For three years straight, you made us take the longer way to get home, and told me that it was a 'shortcut.'" Kenma mutters, feigning annoyance, although it's not completely fake, when he thinks about all the extra energy that Kuroo had made him expend.

 

 

Kuroo smiles at him, unexpectedly, and it makes Kenma's chest feel extremely fluttery.

 

 

"What? I just wanted to spend a little extra time with my favorite underclassman," Kuroo tells him, chin resting on Kenma's shoulder now.

 

 

"You're heavy," Kenma snaps, firmly placing a pillow in between them, and Kuroo sighs, mostly amused.

 

 

"Like I said, I missed you too," Kuroo tells him, looking at him from over the pillow, as Kenma stubbornly turns to face the other way.

 

 

Kenma closes his eyes, faintly remembering all the times Kuroo would have to tug on his sleeve to pull him into the direction of that familiar 'shortcut,' and although the images in his mind are just as hazy as watercolors, he can still remember the slight tinge of pink that would spread along Kuroo's cheeks and ears, and the strangely thoughtful look in his eyes as he would look away.

 

 

He heaves out a long breath, almost letting it catch when he remembers that Kuroo is the one lying down inches away from him, one pillow away, and he can't help but let a tiny smile tug on his lips.

 

 

"Right."

**Author's Note:**

> a/n: Years later, I still love this pairing just as much as before, I hope that they will always be happy with one another weeps


End file.
